PETERS TOWNSHIP, Pa. — The owner of a Peters Township dance studio has been cited by police after she instructed at least one other person to place tape across a 7-year-old student’s mouth, according to court documents and parents.
Peters Township police issued a harassment citation against Camilie Hulin, the owner of Dance By Cami, a dance studio along Route 19 in Waterdam Commons.
Channel 11 spoke off camera with the child’s mother. She said this happened during a full rehearsal for the school’s competitive dance team. She decided to remove her child from classes after finding out what happened.
Channel 11 obtained an excerpt of an email parents said Hulin sent to families. They said in that email, Hulin said painter’s tape was used because students would not stop talking.
“After about a month, I warned the kids that we were exhausted telling them repeatedly to stop talking and that, if we had to, we’d get tape out,” the narrative said.
In the email, Hulin writes, “We explained the next dancers to talk would get the tape, and low [sic] and behold, five dancers did.”
Parents said Hulin explained that painter’s tape “hardly has any stick” and is “super thin”, saying the students could still talk through the tape.
She wrote, “I know that painter’s tape wasn’t ideal and it wasn’t our first choice either, but after hundreds of other attempts, this was the only one that worked.”
Community members in Washington County were upset to hear what happened.
“That’s totally inappropriate. There are a lot of other ways to communicate, especially with kids,” said Cindy Osbourne, a former early childhood education teacher who lives in Hickory. “It’s just wrong. It’s plain wrong.”
“That’s terrible. I feel so bad that they had to go through that, and the parents had to go through learning about that. I’m sure that was very scary,” said one local parent, who didn’t want to be identified.
We’ve reached out to Hulin for comment, but as of Monday afternoon, had not received a response.
Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts.
Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW
©2026 Cox Media Group
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/XCUXZC2XYZHCRGNNGKFEX6U3LQ.png)
